The Role Of Racial Discrimination In America

“ Civil rights is the term that refers to the right of every person to equal access to society’s opportunities and public facilities.”

Throughout American history, racial discrimination has been a huge problem. The affect it has had on African Americans over the years is drastic. The Caucasian Americans used to use the African Americans as slaves, when the country first began and they were treated almost like animals. If a person was only half African American would they be treated the same as a full African American? In Kate Chopin’s Desiree’s Baby, there is a great example on racial discrimination and how partially blooded African Americans were treated, compared to full blooded African Americans in the 19th century. Armand Aubigny fell in love with Desiree who was the daughter of a plantation owner with the name Valmonde. Monsieur Valmonde found Desiree abandoned as a baby and took her in to live with his wife and himself. Monsieur and Madame Valmonde could never be sure of Desiree’s heritage. When Desiree was all grown up, Monsieur Valmonde handed her over to be wed to Armand. Armand and Desiree had a baby and they both loved the baby very much. As the baby got older people started to see changes and the changes were not good. The baby started to develop African American qualities which made Armand very upset. Armand decided to ignore Desiree and the baby because he thought Desiree had some African American heritage in her past. Desiree was sure she did not and she even compared her skin to Armand’s and said “Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand.” Armand continued to ignore Desiree, so she took the baby, left and never came back. Armand later found out that he was the one with the African American blood, not Desiree.

It is hard to believe that after electing a minority president, the United States of America can still be seen as a vastly discriminatory society. A question was posed recently after a viewing of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream…” speech of whether his dream has become a reality. After consideration, a majority of the viewers said no. Although many steps have been taken to improve racial equality in America, there is still no way to legislate tolerance. Dr. King’s message of equality for all has been lost in a black and white struggle over the taken meaning of his context. Until our society can allow all people to live in peace we will never truly achieve King’s dream. Case in point, referring to President Obama as our "our First Black President" should not be considered a statement of pride over how far we have come. Placing this racial qualifier, even in a positive light, only serves to point out his minority status, not the fact that he is the President of the United States. According to Dr. King's dream, a man or woman, black or white, would be viewed as President without qualifying their differences from mainstream America.

Personally, I think the strategies the court used were understandable. The issue of racial inequality is such a delicate topic in the United States, not only historically but today as well. Perhaps the Supreme Court didn’t move as fast as others would have liked or took to small of steps as a part of their strategy to get to the ultimate goal. But the goal was reached to a certain degree and separate but equal was finally diminished.

By 2040, racial minorities with comprise of 50% of the U.S population (Craig and Richeson 2014: 750). This means a change in demographics in American society. There are many implications of this near future of shifting demographics. Researchers have studied the changing demographics over time and found that one implication is rising racial biases exhibit in society. Now is a golden opportunity to rewrite the social scripts for minorities, now is the time to break down stereotypes and see each other not as divided groups, but as a collective country of Americans.

Discrimination has had a significant impact on American society. Instead of focusing on the differences of another person, people should realize and focus on the things every human being has alike to one another. Author Jesse J. Holland stated in her article, Report: How Black America Has Changed in 40 Years, that “with full equality with whites in economics, health, education, social justice and civic engagement set at 100 percent, the National Urban League said this year’s equality index for blacks stands at 72.2 percent, compared with last year’s 72 percent. For Hispanics, it’s 77.8 percent compared to 2015’s 77.3 percent” (Holland, Jesse J.). In America, according to the article Personal Experiences with Discrimination, “roughly seven-in-ten

Prejudice is everywhere, especially among different races. The United States of America is a huge immigration country whose citizen coming from all over the world. All kind of people gather here making efforts together but also causing troubles as well. The prejudice problem has never been eliminated even 1 second.

Having come from a different country when I was six and of not being of African American decent, I never understood why this so called great nation where it has been said you are in the land of the free, and coming to see that it was, but with all the negatively portrayed by the media and people, it filled and encouraged people to except hate and anger. We are all different in color but we are all humans and we all bleed the same way. Sometimes I look at society now and would think after so many years racism and discrimination would be long past us but unfortunately it is

In the United States, some racial gatherings have more noteworthy access to financial open doors than others. This preferential treatment is nothing short of discrimination plain and simple. Although the divide appears to be economic on the outside, it’s underbelly exposes a far deeper and widespread form of discrimination. The poor and economically disadvantaged share one common thread that is hard to deny, the majority of them seem to be people of color. The lack of access to preferential financing and lines of credit leave people of color little choice when it comes to spending their hard earned dollars. Their economic power is diminished by the predatory nature of lenders willing to do business in their neighborhoods. Black and Latinos are subject to higher rates, substandard services and limited availability of quality products in their neighborhoods.

I agree with the dissenting opinion and the statement that persuaded me was “Such exclusion goes over ‘the very brink of constitutional power’ and falls into the ugly abyss of racism.” The statement, in other words, states that the act that the United States was doing at the time was uncoustional and was racist. With everything going on with Japan, the U.S didn’t have the right to take away the right of an immigrate, that may that helped them in previous wars which made this act unconstitutional. The U.S put everyone in a concentration camp without examining if they were supporting the U.S or were good in their past years as a U.S citizen. They were separated from the rest of the population in the United States just because they were partially

On chapter nine the writer writes different examples of what people say to excuse the things that happen in our country or to dismiss a comment from someone. The one that got my attention is the about Delete repeated word Obama and how they say that because we had a black president there is no racism in this country any more when in fact racism and discrimination because of your skin color is something that has being always there. Last weekend I was part of the ME Cha regional conference and one of the workshops I attended was about what to do with the president we have now and how can we help our communities. This reading reminded me of the struggle my genet are going thru and how 26 man were detained by Ice in Woodburn. Obama deported many people but this new president is openly saying everyone is a criminal, rapist or bad people when we are not. Discrimination because of your ancestry is happening in our country and we will have to work very hard to have a brown president in maybe 100 more years.

Are you tired of feeling oppressed, discriminated against, or feared because you are a different race? America is supposed to be the “land of the free,” right? But where has that gone? Where has it run off to? (I interviewed a random selection of students from the University of Chicago yesterday and 9 out of 10 of them said they felt silenced at least once per day! Can you believe the drastic amount of people across this country are suffering from this?) (Being oppressed is such a tremendous problem because it’s so widespread and awful!) No one deserves to go through this, and I intend to put a halt to it by passing reform laws and programs to help people find their voice and raise awareness about discrimination! Every single citizen in America,